April, May and June had been the third-worst quarter for wind in the past 22 years in the North Sea, where Orsted has most of its wind farms. The lower wind speeds cost Orsted DKr1.4bn ($220m) in lost earnings. Low wind speeds have affected several European companies active in renewable energy including SSE in the UK and RWE in Germany.

Despite record additions of renewable generation capacity, fossil fuel-based generation and associated emissions are rising along with electricity demand. Prices were 54% higher in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020. The hourly changes in demand that have to be matched by flexible generation and consumption are increasing.

European gas rates reached a record this week. The world is expected to depend more on cleaner-burning gas as a replacement to coal. Looking further out, the appetite for liquefied natural gas is expected to grow by 3.4% a year through 2035. But as producers curb investments into new supply, it is becoming apparent that expensive energy is here to stay.

The value of the world’s stock of negative-yielding debt has ballooned to more than $16.5tn. Germany’s 10-year yield fell to minus 0.51%, the lowest level since early February. The country’s 30-year yield has also fallen beneath zero. All of Germany’s debt, which serves as a reference for bonds across the eurozone, now trades at negative yields.

... and it took 150 firefighters 4 days to put out Australian local authorities said on Monday. The Victorian Big Battery project, where the fire started on Friday morning, is made up of 210 Megapacks. It was built by French renewable energy giant Neoen using Tesla's 300 megawatt battery packs and is on track to be operational by the end of next year.

China’s top policy makers urged an easing of the aggressive measures taken to reduce carbon emissions. The Politburo’s recommendation comes as coal, China’s principal energy source, is in short supply. Coal prices in China have climbed toward record levels as the country’s electricity providers struggle to keep the power on during heat waves.

The U.K. government has picked its preferred type of small nuclear reactor for a £170 million demonstration program. Alongside electricity, this type of reactor can produce clean hydrogen and heat. Britain’s decision to explore advanced modular reactor technology comes days after plans for new, large-scale plants were thrown into doubt.

The ECB president spoke Thursday as the central bank put into action the new monetary policy strategy. The measures reinforce the ECB’s efforts to convince markets that it will keep ultra-loose policy, including record-low negative interest rates. The ECB’s promise of continued ultra-loose policy sets it apart from some of the world’s biggest central banks.

Demand for exchange traded funds investing in senior loans has rocketed this year as investors hunt for respite from rising inflation. A net $7.3bn has been pumped into the sector so far this year. The trend is linked to rising inflation and interest rate expectations in the US and elsewhere, leading investors to favour floating-rate loans over fixed-rate bonds.

The government is committed to shutting down the country’s three nuclear plants over the next decade or so. Switzerland will lose a third of its current energy generation and become more dependent on imported energy, just as it faces the growing risk it may decouple from the EU’s electricity grid thanks to an increasingly fractious diplomatic tussle with Brussels.

The government plan includes a potential nationalization of EDF’s nuclear and hydropower activities, along with a stock-market listing of a minority stake for its wind, solar, electricity distribution and retail business. The new publicly traded entity would be able to consider a “significant capital increase as soon as it’s listed” and to sell bonds to finance projects.

Five of the advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) plants are due to be shut down in the next three years, removing more than 5.2GW of the current 8.9GW of the UK's nuclear energy capacity. Only one new plant is under construction, the 3.2GW Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The government said it was “committed to the future of nuclear energy”.